Ditto on the Yankees

by Alan Daggett
(Conroe, TX)

I could have written this story if I were a writer. Those guys were the heroes of my youth. I have been an Astros fan since they entered the National League in 1962 as the Colt .45's, but in the fifties when I was a lad growing up there were no MLB Teams in Texas. The Cardinals were the closest in proximity and they were my favorite NL Team. This being said the Cards were a distant second to the Yanks. I might not have this exactly correct, but if memory serves the 1961 line-up was something like this:

1. Bobby Richardson, 2b
2. Tony Kubek, SS
3. Roger Maris, RF
4. "The Mick" CF
5. Yogi Berra, C
6. Bill "Moose Skowron" 1B
7. Elston Howard, LF
8. Cletis Boyer, 3B
9. Ford, Terry, etc., P
Luis Arroyo, RP
Dale Long, PH

Yogi and Elston switched fielding positions regularly and sometimes Boyer batted second. Maybe this line-up is not precise, but pretty darn close. Any who have a better memory than me on this issue are welcome to correct me. I promise I will not be offended. I remember that they aired game 162 when Maris hit #61. For those of you who comprise the younger generation of fans, in those days there was one game per week on TV. On what I considered an outstanding Saturday Afternoon the networks would sometimes show a second "Late" game from the West Coast. Those broadcasts were like gold to a young baseball fan like me and my father from whom I inherited my love of baseball. As Babe uttered in his final appearance at the stadium, "I consider baseball to be the greatest game on the face of the earth." I concur Babe, I concur.

One last train of thought: If the movie "City Slickers" (The first one) there is a character who tells a lady that baseball was the one thing he and his dad could talk about when the character speaking was a teenager. That statement reasonated with me. My father and I argues a lot, but we could always sit down and watch a ballgame and not disagree too much. I would tell my dad stories about goofy things some ballplayer said or did and we would laugh together. This is why I am absolutely devoted to the game.